


A Natural Smile

by toushindai (WallofIllusion)



Category: Baccano!
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-07
Updated: 2016-05-07
Packaged: 2018-06-07 00:19:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,306
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6776386
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WallofIllusion/pseuds/toushindai
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The homunculus meets the Smile Junkie.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Natural Smile

**Author's Note:**

> An appreciation fic for vilatile on tumblr for all the amazing art she is constantly contributing to the fandom!

“Do you mind if I join you?”

Christopher turns away from the train window with a smile that reveals his teeth. “Sure!” he says brightly. “Have a seat.”

“Thanks! This train is pretty full.”

The newcomer—a young man with blond hair and a peerless smile—doesn’t even flinch at Chris’s sharpened teeth or blood-red eyes. He takes a seat across from Chris and pulls a penny dreadful out of his pocket.

How curious.

“I should warn you,” Chris says, “technically I’m traveling with some friends, but they refuse to share a cabin with me because they say it’s annoying when I keep singing to myself.”

“Oh yeah? I don’t mind that at all!” The young man looks up from his book. He’s still grinning. “What have you been singing?”

“Oh, whatever comes to mind. Today I’ve been singing about the beauty of the rolling fields and the open sky. Hm hm hm, la la lu la~” He turns back towards the window and the scenery rushing past outside it, letting a tuneless song flow from his lips. It’s the kind of song—or “song”—that Sickle would kick him for, and even he knows that it’s more pleasant to sing than to hear. But his new seatmate doesn’t seem troubled. In fact, he hums along, his own sense of pitch as misbegotten as Chris’s is. It seems that he has every intention of staying put.

Chris watches the young man’s reflection for a moment, then turns back to him. He makes his smile as wide as possible; it will be impossible to miss his teeth now.

“Where are you headed?”

He looks up from his book, but even now he doesn’t react to Chris’s strange features. “I’m off to Chicago! I’ve been looking for an old acquaintance of mine for a long time now, and I’m hoping I’ll find him there. How about you?”

He doesn’t look old enough to have been doing _anything_ for a long time, but technically Chris doesn’t look much older than he does, so he doesn’t challenge it. He just shapes his grin into a leer and says, “I’m going to Chicago too! My boss has a job for me there. It’ll be nice to spend some in the city that Mother Nature has blessed with her very breath.”

“That’s right, it’s ‘the windy city,’ isn’t it! Though some people say that nickname comes from the politicians, not the breeze, hahaha.”

Still no reaction to the teeth. Most people would have screamed by now. But just as Chris is wondering if maybe this man is dim-witted or just extremely near-sighted, he opens his mouth again.

“Say, about your smile…”

 _Finally_. Chris lets the corners of his mouth pull back as he asks, oh so sweetly, “Yes?”

“You shouldn’t force it so much.”

The declaration is so unexpected that it takes Chris a second to process what it means, and in that second the smile slips from his face. He repairs it a moment later, aiming for “cavalier.” “Who says I’m forcing it?”

The man gives a bashful shrug. “Sorry, I know I’m kind of being a busybody. It’s just that I can always tell the difference between real smiles and fake ones, and that one you’ve been giving me is no good. It’s forced. Honestly, it looks kind of uncomfortable.”

Chris stares at the strange human in front of him. He honestly doesn’t know how to respond to that. Of _course_ his smile is uncomfortable. He’s never been comfortable in his life, not in the hell of Huey’s lab where he was created and not out in the open, surrounded on all sides by nature’s bounty and the humans who don’t even realize what a blessing it is to be real.

“I don’t mean to bother you or make you feel bad,” the man continues, oblivious. “It’s just that I think if you try too hard for too long, you could wind up breaking. I don’t know what that feels like, myself, though I think I’ve seen it happen. But really, I just like real smiles better. And you have such a unique one! I’d hate to see you lose it.”

Well, Chris certainly isn’t smiling now. He gets to his feet in a rush, staring down at the young man. They’re not allowed to kill anyone until they get to Chicago, but he’s still considering it, considering ripping out this man’s throat and showing him a real smile. The kind that comes of doing what he enjoys. But that’s the most unnatural thing of all, to love killing so much.

“I’m going to go find Chi,” he mutters instead, yanking the compartment door open and then shutting it behind him again with a rattle.

In the empty hall, he feels a teetering that doesn’t have anything to do with the motion of the train. He knows it doesn’t, because he’s been feeling it a lot lately: every time a human speaks to him, every time he looks up at the sky and feels Mother Nature gazing back down at him. He shivers. And then he pulls his smile back onto his face, making it as bright and unflappable as that man’s smile was. He runs his tongue over his pointed, terrifying teeth. Then, his composure regained, he stalks down the hallway in search of the only people who have a hope of understanding him.

*

It’s an easy thing, when it happens.

Something changes inside of him that feels as slight as a thread snapping, and he drops to his knees in front of a blood-splattered flower like a broken marionette.

And you know, it’s kind of nice.

“Ha… ha ha ha… haha!”

“Chris, what the hell?” comes Chi’s voice from behind him. Or in front of him. Somewhere. It doesn’t matter. All that matters right now is this pure white flower, this saintly representative of Mother Nature, stained red with blood. They caught up with their target in the middle of the park and made quick work of him. The moonlight is so bright that Chris thinks he can hear the flowers calling out in praise of it, and the massacre didn’t change that, the blood didn’t change it. This flower is still beloved by Mother Nature, and so is their target, and so is their target’s blood. It’s just Chris and Chi and Adele and Liza (is Liza still here?) that Nature will never accept.

“Ha… ha ha… la la la~ ha, lu la lu la la~ ha ha… hahaha ha!”

He doesn’t know what he’s laughing at. Not the flower; he would never scorn Mother Nature’s child like that. He can’t. He’d have to be superior to it for that, and this tiny flower has him beat by far.

“Hahaha… ahhh… ahahahaha!”

“Christopher?” That’s Adele. She sounds worried.

“Chris?” Chi again. “Shit, Chris, are you just breaking now? I thought…”

He doesn’t finish his sentence, or Chris just doesn’t hear it. He hears the question, though, and he thinks: _ah. So that’s what’s_ _happening_.

“Ahaha… hah… kkh… hhhahaha…”

He’s choking, but he can’t stop. He might suffocate like this. He could die. Will Mother Nature accept his body when he dies? Will the worms be deceived, singing their own songs in gratitude for the bounty his body will become?

—He doesn’t think so.

That awareness, that fear, catches in his chest with a horrible gasp, and finally he is free of the laughter. Instead he has his arms wrapped around himself, shaking, shaking. He wheezes. His unnatural lungs move naturally and take clean, cool air into them and expel it again, tainted from contact with his body. Slowly, red speckles clear from his vision. The flower is still before him, unchanging in the face of his madness. Without knowing why, he reaches out one hand and snaps it off its stem.

_Sorry, Mother Nature. I’m taking this._

He stands, and turns to face his friends. Chi and Adele look back at him, wary. He smiles. It’s easy. Something has changed, but he thinks, he thinks that maybe, this is how he’s supposed to be.

With one hand, he holds the flower out towards them; with the other, he gestures towards the moon above.

“Isn’t this a beautiful night?” he asks grandly. He means it. He means it! “It’s like Mother Nature designed this night just to celebrate the change in my heart. Come, we must celebrate in return! Sing with me: the sky is dark, la la la la~ but blood is bright, la la la la~”

“You’ve lost it,” Chi says grimly, and it’s not the first time he’s said it, but he’s never been so right.

*

“Ah! It’s you!”

It’s the kind of coincidence that shouldn’t be allowed: a few years later, on a train again. They’re not bound for Chicago this time, which makes it even more of a coincidence. But Chris doesn’t care about that. He’s satisfied to just be delighted at the strange turns life can take.

His fellow passenger recognizes him, too, and bursts into the same grin that Chris remembers. If he remembers the tension at their parting, he doesn’t seem concerned about it.

“Hey, good to see you again! How did your job in Chicago go?”

“Oh, wonderfully. Were you able to find your friend?”

“Nope, I’m still looking. Want to sit here?”

“Don’t mind if I do!”

Chris flashes him a smile and takes a seat across from him. Turning his gaze out the window as usual, he begins to hum.

“Hey, can I ask you something?”

Chris turns back towards him, smiling still. He’s kind of excited, in fact.

“What’s up?”

The young man is peering at him thoughtfully. “You seem happier than last time. Am I imagining things?”

Chris’s smile widens. “No, you’re right!” he exclaims. “I’m feeling much better than our last encounter.”

The young man claps his hands together. “I knew it! That’s great! Now, tell me to shut up if I’m being too nosy, but I’m really curious: what changed?”

“I broke!” 

He says it without losing his smile, and he waits for this man to flinch. He waits to see consternation or fear or pity—

And he doesn’t get what he’s waiting for.

Instead, the man gives a slow nod. “I see!” he says. “So you broke, and that’s made you happier?” 

“So much so,” Chris answers. He means it. He remembers what it was like just before he broke, the horrible tension of knowing he could never measure up to nature. He may be crazy now, thinking he can surpass humans, but at least he sleeps soundly at night. “I’ve never been so happy in my life.”

Now a joyful light comes over the man’s face, and he impulsively reaches out to clasp Chris’s hands. 

“That’s great. No, it’s wonderful! Thank you for sharing that with me!” 

Looking between his trapped hands and the man’s shining grin, Chris raises one eyebrow. “What’s wrong with _you_?” he asks, not politely.

“I’ve wondered for years if it could work that way—if someone could hit their breaking point and come out happier on the other side. It seemed like it could happen, theoretically, but I’ve never had a chance to observe it for myself. But you’re so much more at ease now! I’m glad for you!” 

Chris tilts his head, fascinated. For a long moment, he stares the young man in the eye. Then, irresistibly, he throws his head back and laughs. He laughs almost as hard as he did when he lost his mind, and he disentangles his hands so that he can clutch his sides. He laughs until tears come to his eyes, and when he finally catches his breath there’s praise on his lips.

“You’re incredible!” he gasps out, wiping his eyes. “I can’t believe it! You’re a product of nature and yet you’re just as crazy as I am! What _are_  you?” 

If the man is insulted by Chris’s declaration, his face doesn’t show it; he keeps grinning as if drinking in Chris’s laughter. “Me? You could call me a ‘smile junkie’! My name’s Elmer, what’s yours?”

“I’m Christopher. Christopher Shouldered.” 

“No way—Christopher’s my middle name!” 

“You’re kidding! What a coincidence!” 

Chris almost starts laughing again, but he manages to restrain himself to a single chuckle.

Sanity never allowed him to be anywhere near this _happy_ , but now all the limits on him are gone. 

Yes. Yes, this is wonderful. 

“Will you be my friend?” he asks Elmer, holding out his hand for a handshake. 

“Sure!” Elmer takes it gladly. “It would be my pleasure, as long as you keep smiling like that.” 

“Oh, I plan to.” 

“Excellent.” 

And so Christopher Shouldered makes his first human friend.

*

In the bustle of getting off the train, though, they lose each other. Chris looks around, momentarily confused. He wishes he’d at least given Elmer a way to contact him. Or, failing that, he wishes he’d given him some kind of gift to celebrate their new friendship. He pressed the flower from the night he broke between the pages of a book and he isn’t doing anything with it; he could have given it to Elmer to commemorate their meeting.

Too late now, though. He shrugs and waves for Chi’s attention. All he has to do, and all he wants to do, is keep smiling.

“You’re in a good mood,” Chi comments as he approaches. He sounds suspicious, but Chris doesn’t let his gloominess get him down. 

“I sure am!” he exclaims. “I just made a human friend!”

“You sure whoever it is would agree with you?” 

“Of course I am! He told me so himself!” 

Chi and Adele exchange a look. It doesn’t bother Chris. He hums to himself, cheerful and unshakable, as they leave the train station behind them. 


End file.
